Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Yesterday we learned that Devin
Patrick Kelley’s name should have been entered into a database listing those
who should never be allowed to buy a gun. He had been court martialed by the
Air Force and did hard time for assaulting a small child and his
wife. Restrictions on gun purchases were made for people like Kelley.

But 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley’s history
of violence didn’t prevent him from purchasing weapons.

One reason, an Air Force spokeswoman said, is
because the service failed to submit Kelley’s record to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation following a court-martial conviction, including for slamming his
baby’s head. The military’s lapse apparently explains why Kelley passed an FBI
background check and was allowed to purchase guns in recent years.

That's a very costly bureaucratic lapse.

In an editorial today the Journal
points out that it’s not just combat readiness that has diminished, the minds
of some of America’s servicemen have also been hollowed out. One was appalled that
Barack Obama, no exemplar of patriotism, would trade five Taliban commanders
for a deserter. He followed up by commuting the sentences of a man-woman who
had been convicted of treason and of a domestic terrorist who had killed innocent
Americans.

But, the infection seeped into
the mind of one of America’s military judges. In particular, this judge allowed
Bowe Bergdahl to walk free last week, after it was clearly established that he
deserted his front line post. Several soldiers died trying to recover him from the
Taliban.

The Wall Street Journal
editorialized this morning about the diminished capacity, on both moral and
readiness grounds:

The first was a military judge’s decision to let
off U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl with a slap on the wrist for desertion in
Afghanistan in 2009. After a court martial, Army Colonel Jeffery Nance
recommended that Bergdahl be dishonorably discharged, demoted to private and
forfeit $10,000 in pay. Prosecutors had sought 14 years in prison.

Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and held
prisoner for nearly five years, a terrible ordeal to be sure. But those most
outraged by the wrist slap are other members of the armed services who fear the
damage to military discipline. Bergdahl deserted on the battlefield in a
forward post—the worst betrayal you can make against your fellow soldiers save
for fragging them with friendly fire.

And then there were the accidents
that befell American ships in Asia, accidents that were caused by incompetent
seamanship, accidents that cost the lives of several sailors:

Even more distressing is the Navy’s report on
its investigation into the collisions with civilian vessels this year in the
Pacific theater by the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain. The
collisions—off the coast of Japan, and in the Singapore Strait,
respectively—resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors.

The 71-page report, which says both collisions
were “avoidable,” is damning about the Navy’s training practices and makes for
dispiriting reading if you are a civilian who thinks the U.S. Navy is the best
in the world. The report says watch team members on the Fitzgerald “were not
familiar with basic radar fundamentals.” And it cites a failure to plan for
safety, adhere to sound navigation practices, properly use available navigation
tools, and respond effectively in a crisis.

As for the McCain, the Navy cited a loss of
situational awareness in response to mistakes in operating the ship’s steering
and propulsion system. It also cited the failure to follow the International
Nautical Rules of the Road that govern maneuvering vessels amid high-density
maritime traffic. These are mistakes of basic seamanship that suggest
inadequate training, or shifts that are too long and cause a loss of
concentration and crew cohesion.

No one is reporting on these reports because they do not
make Donald Trump look bad. Should the Navy take consolation from the fact that
it has become more diverse? Should it brag about the fact that gender diversity
has become the rule for these dysfunctional crews? Should it tell us how much time and energy was spent on sensitivity training and how many sailors and commanders lost their careers for fraternization?

And yet, how did it happen that while the Navy fails to perform everyday maneuvers, its leaders have stood up for transgendered soldiers. It’s
not just combat readiness. The military now must overcome its moral
dereliction, whether it concerns excusing desertion or whether it involves the bureaucratic responsibility to report to the FBI the name of an airman who had no business
being able to buy a gun.

12 comments:

The Army can be a tool for implementing civil rights and social policy, such as the US Colored Troops raised in the Civil War and the four black regular cavalry and infantry regiments that served until the Army was ordered fully desegregated in the late 1940s.

As I said before on numerous occasions, I am tired of AO's constant negativity and constant criticism. I will no longer allow rambling carping to be posted. Keep it under 140 characters and do not offer another endless list of links. It is not AO's blog!!

Nothing has surprised me since January 1993, which I mark as the beginning of the colonization of government policymaking and civil service positions via mass migration of academic and "nonprofit" purveyors of grievance politics.